Are You Ready to Shift Your Sales Beliefs?

A belief is an assumed truth. Thus, everything is a belief—including this statement. We create beliefs to anchor our understanding of the world around us and thus, once we have formed a belief, we will tend to persevere with that belief.

Your belief system, like your computer, doesn’t judge or even question what you think. It accepts your thoughts as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When you think thoughts of failure, you’re bound to feel discouraged and hopeless. And, when you continuously worry, anxiety and fear take over causing stress and keeping you from moving forward.

We did not come into the world with any limiting beliefs or fears. When we were born, we were completely unafraid, fully expressed, and spontaneous. But as we grew up, our parents and people around us began teaching us their beliefs. They began saying things like, “Be careful!” “Stop!” “Get away from there!” “No! You can’t do that!” And, the more you heard these thoughts over time, you accepted them as the truth.

I can remember, as the youngest of 5 brothers and sisters having dinner on Sundays with my family. I was a very expressive little girl with a lot to say. Many times when I would try to speak, my oldest brother would say “Keep quiet, nobody is interested in what you have to say.” To him I was his annoying little sister. But to me, he was my big brother, so whatever he said was the truth. I believed that nobody was really interested in what I had to say, so I stopped speaking up. I believed that what I said didn’t matter.

Dr. Shad Helmstetter, author of What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, writes in his book how we’ve been conditioned by repetitive, negative programming through family, friends, and articles we’ve read. He says the brain is like a “programming machine.” The mind takes what you put into it and after listening to it over and over again, believes the thoughts are real.

It all starts with our programming! It is our programming that sets up our beliefs, and the chain reaction begins. The sequence is as follows: What we believe determines our attitudes, affects our feelings, impacts our behavior, and determines our success or failure. That’s how the brain works.

When it comes to selling, you may have a belief that to successfully sell you have to be like the “slick” or “pushy” stereotype used car salesman, and you know that is not your style. You avoid learning how to sell because you believe you have to act differently and be a certain way with the client. You start saying to yourself and others “I’m not good at selling” or “I’m not the pushy type”. Your belief about selling keeps you from getting out there and selling your product.

No one was born a natural salesperson. You can successfully sell by creating a new set of beliefs and positive self-talk. First, identify what your beliefs are, when did you first start hearing these beliefs and ask yourself if they are really true? You’ll see that these beliefs were passed to you by someone else and you heard them so often, you assumed they were true.

A good way to create positive self-talk is through affirmations. An affirmation is a positive statement that represents your desired outcome. Interestingly, your subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between a real experience and a vividly imagined experience.

There’s a story about Jim Carrey, the well-known comedian and actor. When he was a struggling young comedian, late at night he would drive into the hills overlooking Hollywood and yell at the top of his lungs “I will earn ten million dollars a year by 1995!” When 1995 finally arrived, Jim was the star of the movie “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” for which he was paid twenty million dollars!”

As you come to the end of the year, make a list of your negative beliefs about selling (and other areas of your life). Next to each belief, write a positive affirmation that you can practice daily just as Jim Carrey did that brought him millions. We all have the power within us to change the way we think. Just by changing and practicing your beliefs, you’ll be on your way to taking a quantum leap in your business and life in 2009!